Minute March 21, 2015

Minute : Nepali American Friendship Association

Date : March 21st, 2015

Venue : 505 Rosa Rd, Madison WI 53719

Start time : 3:10 PM

Members Present :

a. Executive Member –

1. Archana M Shrestha

2. Archana Dhakhwa

3. Purna Shrestha

4. Rajendra Aryal

5. Surendra Prajapati

6. Narendra Thapa

7. Abiskar Bharati

b. General Member –

1. Mahendra Pathak

2. Ramesh Khanal

c. Youth Member –

1. Ari Ranabhat

2. Aesasbi Chhetri

3. Melody Pathak

I) Past & Ongoing Events :

a. International Fest :

· Abiskar briefed about the international fest

· Volunteers with Nepali attire were present at the NAFA info booth. Booth displayed Nepali handicrafts.

· Total sale of 119.91$ as per interest of visitors of which 20% goes to NAFA

· ‘Write your name in Nepali’ attracted more visitors to the booth

· NAFA youth participated in this event with full enthusiasm

· Planning to participate in musical event of International Fest next year

b. Kakshya :

· Archana Dhakhwa and Abiskar briefed about Kakshya.

· Much needed help of volunteers in Kakshyaa has been fulfilled by the NAFA youths

· Kakshya going smoothly and getting positive feedback from the parents

· Creative activity like play, dance, songs and poetry are very beneficial for children in Kakshya

· Archana Dhakhwa and Abiskar Bharati to work on creating a book for Kaksya. Book will be sponsored by NAFA.

II) Upcoming Events :

a. Nepali New Year 2072

· Program Coordinator : Archana M Shrestha

· Food Coordinator : Archana M Shrestha

· Cultural Coordinator : Archana Dhakhwa & Abiskar Bharati

· AGM Coordinator : Rajendra Aryal

· Music Coordinator : Rajeeb Karna & Naresh R Shrestha

· Setup & Cleanup Coordinator : Narendra Thapa

Ø Seek entry for cultural program from adults

Ø Kakshya children will present different facets of cultural activity

Ø Request need to be sent (or make a personal call) to all the performers to send in the names for their participations

· Signup sheet for the Nepali New Year Program needs to be sent asap. Archana Dhakhwa will send it .

Ø Rajendra Aryal will give the overview of NAFA activity.

Ø Abiskar Bharati has prepared the slides for all the NAFA volunteers for Volunteer appreciation program.

Ø Himal Regmi will present Budget for 2072 .

Ø Setup – 4 PM

Ø Snack / Socialize – 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM

Ø Rastriya Gaan by Kakshyaa Children – 5:30 PM to 5:35PM

Ø AGM – 5:35 PM to 6:15 PM

Ø Cultural Program & Hajiri Hawaf – 6:15PM to 7:30 PM

Ø Dinner / Socialize – 7:30PM to 9:00 PM

Ø Open Dance Floor – 9:00PM to 10:00PM

Ø Cleanup – 10:00 PM to 10:45 PM

Ø Closing Program – 11:00 PM

b. NAFA Election :

· Archana M Shrestha briefed about it.

· Mahesh Luitel, Abiman Pasachhe and Archana M Shrestha are in election committee

· Committee has not received any nominations or contender for any board posts yet.

· Surendra Prajapati suggested core positions should be filled by Madison permanent residents.

· In AGM, requesting general member to join the NAFA executive board

· Need discussion on ‘Why there were not many contenders/nominations for the NAFA board? What is so repulsive about being in the executive board?’

· Need to approach personally to the general member for the vacant positions in board.

c. NAFA @ Brat Fest :

· Event on May 22nd to May 25th 2015

· Coordinated by Purna Shrestha

· Total of 5 (There are 11) volunteers has signed up for the program

· Purna Shrestha need to send the names of volunteer by March 21st, 2015 due to the rules and conditions changed by the Brat Fest Organizers.

· Not many NAFA volunteers signed up for this event , probably due to long weekend or the event date is too far.

· For NAFA volunteers, Brat Fest organizers will allocate the number of hours. Not sure yet how many hours will NAFA be allocated.

d. NAFA Summer Picnic 2014 :

· Shelter#1, Token Creek Park, Deforest has been selected as the place for picnic.

· Date : July 11th , 2015 Saturday

· Coordinator will be set after AGM.

e. NAFA Membership Drive :

· Coordinator : Himal Regmi

· Need to start the membership drive asap.

· Need to send the email before Baisakh 1st (April 11th 2015).

· Purna Shrestha will circulate the email asap.

III) Financial Report :

· Treasurer could not be present due to his personal reasons.

· Himal Regmi need to file the tax for NAFA

IV) NAFA Scholarship :

· It is decided in previous meetings that NAFA will continue the scholarship with a condition. But NAFA has received suggestion on timing of NAFA scholarship from different NAFA Scholarship winners and candidates. As per them, this scholarship is timed wrongly; it needs to be awarded before the NAFA Dashain Program for the scholarship winners to be able to show it in their application to the colleges.

· NAFA board decided it will change the timing of scholarship from after dashain to before dashain so that the scholarship winners at least use it to get into better schools.

· The timing for the scholarship will be on Nepali New Year program starting from next year. For this year; calling for scholarship application takes time and Nepali New year program is in close proximity, it will be opened right after Nepali New Year program and awarded before NAFA Dashain Program.

V) Miscellaneous (NAFA Website, Youtube Channel, Email, Blog, Library Books)

· Abiskar Bharati briefed about the NAFA website, youtube channel, Library Books

· Website : Abiskar Bharati has created a full NAFA website in google . It will need a domain name which will cost $132 to $150 for 10 years’ time. Board unanimously passed the budget for the domain name purchase. Website has minutes of NAFA from 2006 to 2015, complete list of names of Life members, and many more informations. The name of website for now ishttps://sites.google.com/site/samparkanafa/

· Youtube : Abiskar Bharati has started the youtube channel for NAFA and it has videos of events of NAFA from past and present. This the link to the youtube channel :https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf778gnxaAD80OPthwclnZw

· Blog : Abiskar Bharati has started the NAFA Literature blog. Here is the link : http://nafasahitya.blogspot.com/

· Library : Dinar Shrestha and Abiskar Bharati have worked together and kept the record of all the books in NAFA library. The book information like Name of Book, Author, Publication, Publication date, language and genre of Literature is recorded. All the books in NAFA is being numbered as well.

· Email : Rajendra Aryal told as he checked with Himal Regmi, the member list is not complete in the NAFA emailing list. Need to fix that issue asap.

· Rajendra Aryal suggested to publish the names, emails and phone numbers of member in the website. It was countered by other board members. Per other Board members, member’s information should not/ cannot be disclosed without their consent.

· To update the member email address, youth volunteers can be mobilized.

· Surendra Prajapati suggested to start printing a Membership Form for new members and keep a option where they can select if their information can be disclosed or not.

VI) Nepalese Youth Leadership Forum (NYLF) Madison :

a. Ari Ranabhat, Melody Pathak and Aesasbi Chhetri represented the NYLF – Madison and briefed about their goals.

b. They are associated to Texas-based NGO, Nepalese Youth Leadership Forum.

c. They have about 10 youth leaders in Madison.

d. Ari Ranabhat gave a general overview of their program.

e. Melody Pathak briefly told about a NGO, “Sunsari”, who is providing computer education to the under-privileged children in remote areas of Nepal.

f. Aesasbi Chhetri briefly told about the NGO,”CBR-patan”, who is supporting disabled children in their education, day care, finance and housing.

g. Per the youth leaders, they would like to connect to NEPAL. They would like to give back to the mother nation. NAFA executive board members applauded their decision and determination.

h. Upon their explanation of the NGOs - NAFA board member asked what can NAFA do for them. Their answer was :

· Help with fund-raising events.

· To begin with NYLF youth will set-up a donation box in upcoming NAFA event to support their NGO.

· NAFA board approved / agreed to keep a donation box in Nepali New Year event.

· NAFA board assured the youth leaders that they will be supported by NAFA in their activities.

· NAFA community is proud to have youth and youth leaders who are willing to volunteer in the community and beyond.

· Archana Dhakhwa suggested NYLF – Madison leaders to prepare a visual aid to present in the New Year event so that the community can get more information about NYLF and will be willing to support more. Youth Leaders have agreed to the idea of presenting to the NAFA community.

Meeting End time : 5:40 PM

Minute Prepared By :

Abiskar Bharati

Secreteray

On behalf of NAFA.